Singapore – Harbourfront

A throwback entry of what happened last month, January 2017. A quick meet up with two friends before the Chinese New Year whereby I handed the aromatherapy essential oils bought from Bangkok to one of my friends. Upon arrival at the Vivocity, I was given a choice to choose between the Hong Kong food and the Japanese food which both of the restaurants are located at Basement 2, side by side. Unable to decide which restaurant to go for dinner since I am fine with any food, we played the rock, paper and scissor game to decide for us.

And finally we headed to the Mak’s Noodle for wanton noodle. We asked the waitress for a recommendation and she said the best seller is the beef brisket and the dumplings wanton noodle (dry version). We chose our food based on her recommendation.

Beef Brisket

In Hong Kong, it is called ngau lam mien. It is a famous food among the Hong Kong people. It is really delicious although it is quite oily for me. The sauce is good to mix it with my wanton noodle which it slightly coated with oyster sauce for the dry version. The sauce is the best of everything in this dish.

Wanton Noodle

Although the waitress suggested us to try the dumplings wanton noodle, I still chose to try the original wanton noodle. For me, by trying their wanton noodle for once, then I will know whether it is worth to visit again this restaurant. I find the noodle is slightly soggy. I prefer noodle which is springy, not wet. The wanton size is medium, unlike those in Hong Kong, which is large, as large as a ping pong ball. The ingredients are fresh.

My friends tried the dumplings noodle which comes with two medium size abalone. It is their special meal for Chinese New Year. My good friend gave one piece of the abalone for me to try. Although, I am not a big fan of abalone, I find the abalone is well-cooked,easy to eat and well-tasted.

The restaurant offers desserts as well which you can try after meal.
I still prefer the wanton noodle I tried myself in Hong Kong, Tsim Chai Kee Noodle.
*Finally a group picture with friends and the food.

Friday’s night, after staying back and finishing up some works, there was a call for dinner and I did not know the location even when we took an Uber car to the place. When we reached the Vivo City drop off then I realised our dinner destination was at the west side, a place which recently quite popular by Pokemon players.

Without any ideas what we wanted to eat, we walked around to look at the information counter as well as the restaurants around the first floor. Then, we decided to try the mookata. It is my first try of mookata in Singapore. The word mookata derives from a combination of a Korean barbecue and a Chinese hot pot. In Thai language, Mu (moo) means pork meat and kata means pan or skillet. For Thai version of barbecue, they use charcoal.

For this mookata restaurant which is located at the level 3 of the Vivo City, it does not use the charcoal. It is using gas. It is just a name of the restaurant. It is sad that this restaurant is not using authentic method to serve. The selection of meats and ingredients lay on the two rows of counters and another row of counters with cooked food and desserts. We put most of our meat on top of the steamer and the rest of the ingredients into the steamboat pot. It is optional to have the steamboat, the price differences is just minimal.

There are various soup based, we chose the tomyam and chicken clear soup. We went for two rounds of meats and vegetables before we ended our dinner with desserts. On the other side of the steamboat, it is the Overall, the dinner was just another steamboat and I do not really enjoy the fun of mookata-ing, I am not eating it authentically with charcoal.

I travelled all the way to Harbourfront to meet up with my brother who was on his business trip to Singapore and he was staying around VivoCity Shopping Centre. I was searching around in the Internet to find out which restaurants are good for dinner and let him to make a choice. We ended up at this Japanese restaurant.

The menu has quite a lot to be chosen and it comes with set meals too. If you wish you can have additional side dishes.
Pork Kimuchi Ramen. The soup based by itself is nice with the sesame oil. It has half an egg, some meat and cabbage, kimchi and ramen. The set comes with a drink of your choice and a side dish. The portion is generous and filling.
Pork Tomyam Ramen. The tomyam taste is just nice and is not too strong. The ingredients are quite generous with bean sprout and pork meat. And, our side dishes.
After finished all the food and drink, our stomach was so full and we called it a day. I sent him back to his hotel before I head back to East side.